Review these Enterprise Hub resources:
Articulate your progress clearly and concisely against each of these headings. Reflect on any challenges and action areas.
Record your findings in your learning log.
This aspect of my final project has been one of most challenging for me and there is much still to be done in this area.
On the positive side
- I have looked at external opportunities such as joining a professional organisation based in the field of death studies and have engaged with them regarding my dissertation and a potential interview.
- I have applied and been accepted for an artist’s residency.
- I am investigating funding with Creative Scotland and will also look at the OCA Enterprise funding.
On the negative side
- I have not submitted any work for Open Calls or competitions.
- I have not yet engaged with gallery spaces.
- I realise that I need more engagement with others to help build my practice. I need to engage with the wider world to help build my experience and confidence and to help build networks.
Some of the interaction I am looking for will come from my artist’s residency and with engaging with curators and other participants. The same applies to me joining the Association for the Study of Death and Society but there is more I can do.
I have started to investigate digital exhibition spaces such as Kunstmatrix, Artsteps and Artplacer. I will use these tools to develop an online exhibition test space where I can explore how an exhibition will look and feel and which will offer some public shop window for my work.
My biggest challenge is with physical exhibition spaces. Initially I wondered about gallery space in local hospitals having seen other artworks displayed in the corridors. I had some feedback that my work represents a challenging sense of life and death and that hospitals might not be the best place to display such work. Should my audience be able to stumble across my work by accident as they are sick or are visiting their sick relatives or friends? It also might be the case that hospitals would be reluctant to have such work on show. As I thought about this, I pushed my own thoughts of where to display my work onto a back burner requiring more thought. I am conscious that gallery space is booked up, sometimes a year or more in advance, so it is possible that I won’t be able to display my work in a real gallery setting within the confines of my 3.3 unit. I will give this aspect of my exhibition much more thought and will try and search out suitable spaces, perhaps not for my whole concept but instead for smaller aspects of my work. This might also tie in with submissions for open calls or competitions.